eBay: Outrageously Cool Tiki Bar Decor - The Outrigger Canoe of My Dreams:

Unfortunately, I'm on a budget right now. But someone needs to buy this vintage masterpiece and hang it above their bar, so that I can come see it and have a drink.
http://cgi.aol.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2001&item=3737828075&rd=1

Look at the beautiful color of that wood and the detail of the carving. Where do you think this item was bought originally?

Someone buy this, please.

Sabu

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy on 2004-07-21 18:24 ]

Hey Sabu...not that bad really reserve was $149.00...hit it with my first bid...you are correct that is a piece for keeping!

[ Edited by: mexatiki on 2004-07-21 18:45 ]

Good Job, Mexatiki.

If you wind up the winner, I definitely want to come over and see it close up.

Sabu

Sabu, just showed it to the wife and she gave the thumbs up...we are digging into the private stash for this one...we will do a BBQ and Mai Tai viewing if we win!

I agree Mexatiki that will look sweet over the bar, or anywhere in the bar, hope you win it.

Ok folks...someone else is after this one...not surprised as it is amazing...I have pushed this guy to 200 and now I am going to sit back and wait until the end...I am having a GOTTA HAVE IT MOMENT!!!

Dang man you got outbid by two fiddy!

Now what does a guy named Docbaseball what with an outrigger with tiki's in it? Maybe he thinks they are holding little bats?

Dont you hate it when this happens on Ebay?

That looks somewhat similar to this piece over the host/hostess station at Bali Hai:

I saw one exactly like this in one of the marquesas island...it was very very expensive. This is a great piece, congratulation.

It is a catch 22 Hiltiki, I wish it happened on all my auctions but that has become the nature of the beast...the truly hard to find things go for big bucks...unless they are listed incorrectly and the average pieces get average to low prices...3 days left on this one...hmmm we shall see how it ends up.

That's one of the coolest tiki pieces I've seen. Go get it Mexi!

There are not many things that I desire to own for my collection left, and I am always thrilled when something comes up that I feel I must have, this is one of those pieces.

I am gonna go for it, because Marquesan art is my absolut favourite, because I am working and have work coming up and will miss out on a lot of summer Tiki fun this year and deserve a treat in return.

It is not as elaborate as the one at the Bali Hai. I did not see anything like it when I was in the Marquesas, glad to hear from Virani they are still making them.

If I won't win it, I will have saved a bundle, but if I do, it will motivate me to work for more moolah!

On 2004-07-23 01:28, bigbrotiki wrote:

I did not see anything like it when I was in the Marquesas, glad to hear from Virani they are still making them.

Well, the one I saw was exactly like this one, in a smaller size. The tiki could be taken off the canoe, so as the pagae. It was in Ua Huka island, where there's the most beautiful tiki artcraft out of wood.

Hey Bigbrotiki....I hope you can get it! I am tapping out at 550.00...GO BIG BRO...GO BIG BRO!!!!

Dang, I'm kinda sorry I let this cat out of the bag now. Hindsight doesn't help me - if I had known it was worth this much, I would have stealthily bought it and sold it cheap to Bigbro or Doctor Z or maybe resold it myself. But I thought it might be worth $250 tops. I think all I've done is make the seller extremely happy and caused my TC compatriots some pain in their pocketbooks. I hope Docbaseball is a real TC member and not just a lurker, but who knows. The end of the auction will tell. Good luck, Bigbro!

Sabu

PS: Virani - thanks for the info on which Marquesas island carvers still produce these. I'm sure that info will come in handy for future vacationers.

[ Edited by: Sabu The Coconut Boy on 2004-07-23 11:57 ]

Don't bid anymore until the latest possible moment that you can logistically manage before the end of auction.

Here's the bid history:

http://offer.ebay.com/ws3/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=3737828075

If mexa-tiki and BigBro hadn't bid, the amount would still be sitting at the amount that docbaseball bid at "Jul-21-04 19:16:41 PDT" (until "flange!" came along anyway). It took doc two days to start upping the bid in increments until he was on top again. Don't give him (or anyone) the chance to re-up their bids! Wait as late as you can and bid the MAX amount you can stomach. You'll get the item cheaper that way if you win and if you lose you didn't need to spend that much anyway. This is not unethical! This is sound and wise ebay practice!

Also, make sure your account is set to accept second chance offers. Maybe docbaseball is retired baseball player Doc Gooden. He is known to have very expensive bad habits and perhaps he reneges on the deal. The seller then has the option of offering the second highest bidder the item at their highest bid price. I recently lost a nice set of Fijian utensils because I did not have my account set to receive second chance offers. They were relisted and sold for 2.5 times what I bid (the seller emailed me and said she would've sold them to me had I been set up to receive second chance offers).

docbaseball, if you're a TC member then good luck to you as well but don't bid again until the last minute!

This unsolicited consumer advice comes gratis from me and I hope everyone accepts it in the spirit that it is given. I WANT Sven to win that outrigger! If I were an ebay seller I'd advise to "bid early and bid often" as they are wont to say, as that philosophy by far favors the sellers. As a chronic buyer I tell you to "bid once and bid late!"

P.S. The fact that it took docbaseball three incrementally (I suppose) higher bids to reach "high bidder" status suggests to me that his highest bid isn't too much higher than where the auction now stands. Bid wisely. :tiki:

You're right, I thought of that...stupid of me. That seems to be the way now, and it makes sense. People halted bidding on my Spanish mugs til the very end, to keep the price low...

It's just that I am sitting here with a 9 hour plus time difference, AND i do not have a sniping service, so I decided to put in ONE high bid (527.-) and leave it at that, win or loose. I am tempted to continue now (isn't that how e-by works :) ), but it seems some others are still determined, too.

If my calculations are right the deal closes on Monday morning at 7:00 am my time, yet what chance do I really have against a sniping program...professional dealers like the good folks from Cruz certainly have one, don't you, guys?

Maybe I should just wait til the next time I catch the Aranui...Virani, how much was the one on Ua Huka? (I remember being shocked at how high the prices were for Tikis in the Marquesas. I mean you come all this way, you deserve a deal, n'est pas?)

Sven, check your personal messages. I don't even want to start on my rant about posting auctions on TC. Good luck everyone!

On 2004-07-24 02:18, bigbrotiki wrote:

Virani, how much was the one on Ua Huka? (I remember being shocked at how high the prices were for Tikis in the Marquesas. I mean you come all this way, you deserve a deal, n'est pas?)

Well, I'm not sure, but the one I saw was maybe about 300 dollars. It had not 4 but 6 tikis on it, with the same kind of carving than this one. And about the size, i'm not sure with the inches, but the one I saw was about 50 centimeters.
I wanted to take it, but hard to put in a bag, and well, it seemed expensive, but if I thought it could be sell for over $500 !!
I spoke a bit with the lady selling it, and she shows me we could take out the tikis, and play with them !!!
Maybe you should ask Didier about the real price of it, as i gave you his E-mail. He really helped me with the value of the artcraft.

The way things goes, I think i want to go live on a marquesas island, and sell arts on Ebay or to Tikicentralites !!

You know I spoke with a wood carvers in Hanavave (Fatu Hiva island), he told me about his life, as we shared a grapefruit on the small harbour, waiting for the Aranui to come pick us.
He told me when the Aranui was coming, he sold maybe 1 or 2 tikis, but that made his day (or even his week), and sometimes there's some small tourists boats for usa or Australia, and he could sell even more. But, he didn't want to make to much tikis, even if he could sold them easyly.
He prefers not to work too much, and if he's hungry, he have plenty of fruits on his backyard, or he could go fishing.
He even told me : "you know, some tourists comes and ask : what a fantastic artcraft, how long does it take to do one tiki like this, and I reaply : well, at least a month, but you know, I can make a tiki in a day".
This guy could make easy money, especially with Tahiti, where everybody wants Marquesian art, but he don't want to work too hard.
That day, I had a good lesson of life.

And now, what I want more in life is going back to Hanavave, play soccer with the kids again, share a grapefruit with this guy, and stay there forever.

Why don't we get some carvers together and start carving these things?
I have a 14 ft. long by 3 ft. diameter redwood log. We could make 2 of them from it or 4, if we cut in half length wise. I'm in. Anyone else?

Wao Nahele Kalepa Kumula'au Hale

[ Edited by: Jungle Trader on 2004-07-24 08:56 ]

I'm definately thinking about some of these on a smaller 3"to5" scale. They would be manageable size cost and economic shipping???

Benz I know I love this piece and would love to see you or even many of the TC carvers do this concept in their unique style, I know once you finish doing my Maori Cannibal I am already trying to figure what I want from you next.

On 2004-07-24 02:18, bigbrotiki wrote: so I decided to put in ONE high bid (527.-) and leave it at that, win or loose.

That's exactly what you should do. Just do it as late as you can!

*On 2004-07-24 02:18, bigbrotiki wrote:*I am tempted to continue now (isn't that how e-by works :) )

This is the crux of it. Bid what you consider an appropriate amount and bid late so that you (and more importantly, your competitors) do not have time to be tempted to spend more than you originally felt was an appropriate bid.

On 2004-07-24 02:18, bigbrotiki wrote:
If my calculations are right the deal closes on Monday morning at 7:00 am my time, yet what chance do I really have against a sniping program...professional dealers like the good folks from Cruz certainly have one, don't you, guys?

THE most important factor is the bid amount. Period. If you bid $650 with five hours left and mexa-tiki bids $600 with a sniping service you still win. In fact, mexa-tiki using a sniper service would work in your favor as he would not have time to see that he lost and then reconsider (as you are now doing) and rebid with a higher amount. I'll repeat: The most important factor, * uber alles*, in winning an ebay auction is the amount you bid. Don't forget this. Forget about sniping programs as being magical tools to win auctions.

The secondary factor is bidding as late as possible to prevent competitors from reacting to your bid and then changing their bid. Look at this auction. docbaseball made a bid that he thought was appropriate. That's what he wanted to spend. mexa-cruz, Big Bro and sh-boom bid the price up considerably. Two days later, docbaseball says "Holy shit!" Maybe he looked at your feedback and saw that you wrote a book. Now he's thinking "This guy know his stuff, it must be worth a lot of money! I'm going to double my bid!" Or maybe he just doesn't understand the concept of a silent auction. You don't try and "inch" the bid up slowly to get it for as little as possible, as this does not work on ebay. You bid your maximum amount and be done with it! BUT you want to bid as late as possible to foil those who do not understand the dynamics of the process and like to bid and then up their bid again and again and again ad nauseam. Those folk tend to bid emotionally and not rationally. The sellers LOVE THEM and the seasoned buyers don't love them. :lol:

Summary: (1) Bid your MAX amount, whatever it is. (2) Bid as LATE as you can manage (people have to sleep and go to work etc). (3) Don't worry about sniper programs, they are essentially meaningless and harmless if you bid your MAX amount; either the other bidder was willing to spend more than you or not! If a sniper beat you it's because he spent more than you were willing to. Period.

Another word on "sniper" programs:
Sniper programs DO NOT feel out your highest bid and raise it by a nickel! This is an illusion created by the ebay system. Sniper programs submit your bid (whatever it is) and submit it at the last possible second. That's all! When you win an auction, you may have been "sniped" several times but you do not know it because the sniper bid was lower than your's and thus does not show up on the bid history.

Don't worry about sniping! In fact, if you have logistical problems with the time that an auction ends (like you should be sound asleep for work the next day) then maybe you should enlist a sniper service yourself to deliver your bid. I've never used one so I don't know how reliable they are, but the concept is sound.

Damn that piece is nice.
If the winning bidder would like to trade for a huge 10 ft. tiki.....call me.

6 Minutes to go...Good Luck BigBro. If you don't win it, I guess we'll have to make you one.

Won by Tiki63

Phew! I am kinda relieved. There was a bit too much money riding on it, I have enough expenses coming up.

Thanks for the valuable e-bay advice, the sniping thing makes total sense, I naively thought sniping services would up the price a buck each time, but off course they have to have a limit! So it really benefits the buyers by keeping the price low til the last minute (which I spoiled, sorry). Bet that Tiki... guy who won is a TC member. Congrats, pal!